Frozen Tangles
by Lexmarker
Summary: Things have finally calmed down in Arendelle. Or have they? Anna seems to think there are two troublemakers in Castle Arendelle's walls. And what's with all this... hair!
1. Other Thawings

So this is going to be my first foray into storytelling again, aside from cyborgPunzel.

That being said, no meta needed for this fic, everyone can enjoy.

I don't own anything except for all the toys, posters, dolls, statuetes... (rambles for a bit)... and mugs of Disney characters. But the characters themselves are all Disney's.

Enjoy!

- Lex

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><p>"Kai... are you sure this couldn't have waited till later in the day?" Anna yawned as she tried to tame her bedhead. It wasn't enough that the manservant had to wake her up sooo early in the morning, but the morning after the kingdom's gate opening party? There had to be some law against it.<p>

"I assure you, your highness, the delegates of Corona are very justified in their need of your haste." Kai said in a clipped tone as he quickened his steps.

"Why? What kind of possible royal emergency could they be having? And why are they still in the castle? Didn't all the other dignitaries leave already?" Anna mumbled, spitting out a few more stray hairs that found their way to her mouth in the night.

"Your highness, surely you know that the royal house of Corona is a direct relation to your own? They probably wished to congratulate Her Majesty privately after all the commotion these past few days." Kai said, trying to keep the judgment out of his voice. It wasn't his place, after all, even if he had been charged with hiring the royal tutors that had so _profoundly_ made an influence on Anna.

"We're... ugh... royalty. Aren't we all related down the line somewhere? Blood of Charlemagne and blah blah blah." Anna grunted, tying her hair down in her braids, even though there were still a few stubborn cowlicks.

"Blood of Harald the First, your highness." Kai said, fighting the urge to roll his eyes. "And to answer your first question, I believe the Prince Consort's own words were that it was a... hair emergency..."

Anna almost stopped in her tracks to turn back for her bed when she heard those words. "A **hair** emergency? Wow. I mean, I don't like the whole spoiled royal princess stereotype, but really? My hair is like this and I'm not dragging her royal guard to hack at my split ends." Anna said as they came to the double doors leading to the guest's wing.

"I think that this may rank a few degrees higher, your highness." Kai said cryptically, gently pushing the doors open. Anna felt the urge to argue that no one would have more problems with hair then she did. That little urge died when she saw what lay beyond the entryway.

Hair.

Yards and yards of blond, shining hair.

Hair on the doorknobs.

Hair on the rugs.

Hair on the drawers and candlesticks and...

"I know I leave women speechless, strawberry, but you might hurt your jaw there." a sly voice offered, and Anna was shocked to find that one of the piles of hair spoke to her. Thankfully, it was actually just a man carrying a pile of hair and not some magical talking hair monster. She noticed a man's face peeking from the side of the massive coils of hair.

Kai cleared his throat. "Princess Anna of Arendelle, Prince Eugene." he said, standing up straight for the introduction.

"Oh, sorry. _Princess_ Strawberry. Don't hurt your jaw." the man, this Prince Eugene said, winking salaciously at Anna before turning to the manservant again. "Thanks Koi. Now how about lending me a hand with all of this, hmm?" Kai sputtered for a moment at the prince's audacious lack of decorum, but Kai had worked under Princess Anna for the better part of eighteen years. He bit back his remarks and stooped to collect the yellow locks with Eugene.

Anna had seen a lot of strange things the past week, Olaf being one of the many highlights, but she wasn't exactly prepared for this kind of surreality. She was about to voice one of the endless questions just waiting to burst from her head when she heard a shriek from inside the room where all the hair seemed to be coming from.

"Eugene! Quick! It's happening again!" Anna heard a woman's voice cry out.

The smug expression on the Prince's face was immediately replaced with a look of panic.

"C'mon, Koi! Get that one of the rug! Lift it up! Don't let it touch the door!" He said, scrambling to pick up what looked like arbitrary stretches of hair from the hallway. Anna was confused, but Kai seemed to recognize the severity of the situation and also picked up his pace.

Before Anna could say anything, a flash of golden light filled the hall. She gasped as the hair seemed to glow like a sunbeam in front of her, and even more when the pulse of light raced up and through the staggering amount of hair. Kai and Eugene flinched, raising their respective collection of hair over their heads as the light passed through, and Anna would have thought they looked positively idiotic if it weren't for the sheer strangeness of it all.

Finally the light seemed to fade away, and Anna could see the relief on the faces of the men as they let out deep breaths.

"Well, that was a close one, wasn't it, K...!" Eugene said, but was cut off from mispronouncing Kai's name when they heard a shudder and a whine come from behind them.

Again, Anna had to hold back her questions as both Eugene and Kai turned with horrified gazes to a single, stray lock that was touching the foot of a drawer. The men instantly ducked for cover as soon as they saw the dresser shake one more time, and before Anna could even blink, the furniture groaned and burst into another dazzling show of gold light.

Anna finally understood all the scrambling and fear in Eugene and Kai's face as she saw what that one lock of hair did to the drawer. It first it only jerked and heaved, spilling its shelves on to the floor. Then chaos touched the whole scene as dark, ganrled branches erupted from the wood and speared right up to the ceiling. Anna couldn't help but let out a small cry as tendrils of roots jutted from the feet of the dresser, crawling all the way through and breaking floorboards only to stop inches away from Anna's shoes.

"Sorcery..." Anna whispered, then squeaked and clapped her hand to her mouth as she realized just who she sounded like. Still, all the telltale signs were there, and even though she knew Elsa's magic could be controlled didn't mean she could say the same for this new source of insanity. By the time the drawer finally stopped shaking, a third of the hallway was blocked by an oddly square-trunked oak.

"Okay. You win. This is a bigger hair emergency." Anna said, her brow furrowing as she marched into the guest room to the source of all the follicle madness.

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><p>"Eugene? Is everything alright out there?" Rapunzel called out. It had been a long time since she clung to her hair for comfort thanks to her unexpected pixie cut a few years back. She found that the old habit was extremely easy to pick back up given the circumstances.<p>

She was glad to hear someone tromping into the room, but was surprised that in place of her dashing male consort a petite and angry looking young woman came through the doorway instead.

"Alright, look your highness. Contrary to the impression we might have given yesterday, we don't usually like having magic busting up our castle." Anna said, leveling an accusing finger at Rapunzel. "I don't know how they do things in Corona but you better have an explanation for all... all..." Anna said, trying to find the words but halfway through just sighing and grabbing a lock of hair from off the floor. "... ALL THIS HAIR!" Anna blurted out, shaking the bunch in her hand.

Rapunzel flinched at the tone of Anna's voice, but she knew she would have been in the same position in her own castle. She sighed, wishing she had a better explanation to give the other princess, but went on with her version of the events anyway.

"I'm sorry, I don't know. I just woke and it, I mean, my hair was just _doing_ that." Rapunzel said, running her hand through her tresses. She actually took a second to savor the familiar sensation before remembering that Anna was still there, looking very cross about the damage to her hallway. "The wood thing, I mean." Rapunzel added, and Anna actually took a moment to look around the room.

Sure enough, there were little saplings here and there where a hat rack or a stool used to be, and patches of carpet seemed to fray out wildly in tufts of overgrown wool. Even a little ivory duck statue that Anna remembered being in the room was now an ivory duck statue with a gigantic elephant tusk attached to its posterior. It did little to ease the dread growing in Anna's stomach.

"I would think that I'd remember meeting a girl with fifty feet of magic blond hair at the coronation ball." Anna said, crossing her arms and tilting her hips.

"But you have, I mean, we have met. When they opened up the gates?" Rapunzel said before kicking herself mentally at the sight of Anna's unamused look. "My hair was shorter. And brown. Look, my hair usually isn't like this, okay? Even when it was like this it wasn't like _this_. It's all because of... because of..." Rapunzel sighed, her shoulders dropping as she tried to work past her stress and fear and it was all just so hard and her powers were never this bad before and...

"Because of magic." a third voice floated into the room and both girls turned to face the newcomer, Anna with a smile of relief and Rapunzel with a look of shame.

Elsa stepped into the room, a lock of hair twined between her fingers with Kai, Gerda, and Eugene following after.

She stared at the tresses in her hand, then back to Rapunzel, holding the lock in front of her.

"Princess Rapunzel, I would like to hear an explanation for this as well..." Elsa said calmly, pressing the strands into her palm. "... and I would also like to add to my sister's concerns..." she said, holding the lock up for everyone to see. Blue frost curled and crackled around the golden hair, only to shine gold and melt, dripping on to the carpet. Anna gasped, but Elsa just looked to Rapunzel with a hint of curiosity and... amusement?

"... how are you thawing my ice?"


	2. A Castleful

Here it is! Chapter 2! Same disclaimers as the first. Sorry for the wait and hope you enjoy. Please remember to leave a review. :)

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><p><em><strong>A Castle Full<strong>_

"Just who does she think she is?" Anna seethed as she peeked through the crack in the doorway with Kristoff.

"Uh... the princess of Corona?" Kristoff replied, leaning back on the door frame and only barely participating in Anna's invasion of privacy.

Inside the study, Elsa and Rapunzel were speaking in hushed tones and serious expressions. It had been a lot of trouble finding a metal basin big enough to hold all of Rapunzel's hair, but the explosive growth that followed whenever it touched wood or cloth made sure that it was a quick search. Anna was slightly disappointed that they hadn't used the old chamberpot like she had suggested earlier.

"Please. Princesses are a dime a dozen. Now keep quiet. I can't hear a thing." Anna said, socking Kristoff on the shoulder without taking her prying eyes off of the pair. Kristoff had to stifle a yelp.

"Maybe you can't hear a thing because they don't want anybody to hear anything?" Kristoff grumbled, rubbing his sore arm.

Anna only answered him with a shushing hiss. It looked like Elsa was giving a demonstration of her powers to the other princess. With a flourish of her hand, a beautiful snowflake appeared and hovered in the middle of the table. Anna could see Rapunzel nodding and speaking again, and she strained to hear what the princess of Corona was saying.

"Is she... singing?" Anna said, whispering more to herself than to Kristoff. She didn't have much time to think about the words passing through Rapunzel's lips as a blinding gold light started to shine from out of the basin and the blonde locks on Rapunzel's head.

Where the beams of light touched upon Elsa's snowflake, the ice and frost shrank back and melted down on to the table surface. Elsa nodded and began speaking once more.

"What is Elsa sayiiiiing..." Anna whined, pressing herself face closer to the door for even a hint of the conversation.

"You could just go in and ask her like a normal person." A strange but familiar voice said from behind her.

Anna screamed and turned, stumbling back into the study in an unruly heap.

"Anna? What are you doing? Are you alright?" She heard Elsa's concerned voice. Two hands helped her back up, and Anna noticed that one of the pair wasn't Kristoff but that smug Prince Eugene from earlier that day.

"Kristoff! You were supposed to tell me if anyone was coming!" Anna said as she got back on her feet.

"I was?" Kristoff said flatly, patting the dust off Anna's dress.

"You need to hire better henchmen, strawberry." Eugene chuckled at the girl, and Anna shot back a glare in response. Only Elsa's voice brought her back down from her angry thoughts as Anna realized that she had been caught eavesdropping.

"Anna. This is embarrassing. You're the princess of a nation, not some thief hiding in the shadows!" Elsa said sharply. Only Rapunzel noticed the slight wince that Eugene had at the mention of the word and she bit back a laugh.

"Well, yeah, but... but I am a princess of a nation! And this is an issue of national security! Of course I'd want to know about what's going on!" Anna said back. She didn't really know whether to feel hurt or angry at her sister, and Anna still didn't really feel like testing their new found sisterly bond after having it restored only so recently.

Rapunzel could feel the tension in the air and she cleared her throat feebly. Elsa looked back to her with an almost apologetic look, while the other sister, Anna, glared daggers.

"I'm sorry. This is all my fault. I was only speaking with her Majesty about transport and safety so that I won't cause any more trouble. We'll be leaving as soon as possible." Rapunzel said, still filled with guilt. The guest room and hallway had been totaled in the time it took to find the bassinet, and Rapunzel had repeatedly promised to replace everything with double its value. But just as before, Elsa was having none of it.

"You'll do no such thing. You're going to stay in Arendelle till we sort this whole matter through. You can never be too careful when it comes to the sea." At that, both Elsa and Anna seemed to deflate a little from what Rapunzel could see, but it was only a moment and the two went back to looking concerned and defiant respectively.

"But Elsa, maybe it's not such a bad idea. I mean, this is their magic that we're dealing with. I'm sure they'll have better ideas on what to do in Corona than they would in our kingdom." Anna pleaded, trying not to look at Rapunzel as she spoke to Elsa.

"No, Anna. What example would we be setting after begging forgiveness from the other kingdoms about our own arcane mishaps when our first action regarding a similar situation is to send our problems off on whatever ship is in port?" Elsa said stubbornly, her brow furrowing. "And you have no idea how magic can affect someone, Anna. You don't understand what it can do." Elsa added in the heat of her passion. Anna's look of shock and the own feeling of dread in her stomach instantly signaled to Elsa that she had gone too far.

"I think I know better than anyone what magic can do, actually." Anna replied coldly and for once Elsa felt the chill coming from her sister instead of the other way around. Elsa's lips parted to try and say something, but nothing came out and Anna cut her off either way.

"I apologize for my outburst, your majesty. My comments were out of place and uncalled for. I will leave you to your audience with her highness." Anna said with strict decorum completely out of character. She curtseyed low and didn't spare her sister a single look as she stepped back out and into the hallway.

"Anna, wait." Elsa said, finally finding her voice again but already she could hear the footsteps fading away. Kristoff only gave her a small shrug before turning and jogging to catch up with Anna. Elsa's shoulder's slumped, but then she remembered her present company and gave a weary smile to both Coronan nobility.

"I'm sorry. Anna is such an emotional girl and I'm afraid it runs in the family." Elsa said, trying to compose herself and fighting the urge to do the same as Kristoff.

"It's fine. I know how that feels." Rapunzel said, letting out a weak laugh as she stood from her chair. An uneasy silence settled in between the two as whatever popped in their head to talk about seemed inappropriate given the feelings still hanging in the air. Finally Rapunzel spoke up.

"I think you should go talk to your sister, your Majesty." Rapunzel offered, giving a small smile. Elsa bit her lip and looked lost for a moment, before relief flooded her.

"Yes. I think that would be best. Excuse me, Princess Rapunzel." Elsa said, taking Rapunzel's gesture. With her own royal nod to Eugene, Elsa calmly walked to where her sister exited, though it was obvious to everyone that her steps had a longer stride than what a calm and composed monarch would usually have.

After a few seconds passed and after Elsa's own footsteps faded away, Eugene let out a long whistle and crossed over to sit in one of the couched of the reading room.

"Who needs the opera when you have that kind of drama, right Blondie?" He said as he unceremoniously flopped down on the couch.

"Drama is overrated, Eugene." Rapunzel sighed, carefully dragging her bassinet behind her as she sat down with her husband. "But you can tell they really care about each other." Rapunzel said as she stared at the door. "It must be nice, having a sister."

"Well, coming from my unique perspective, growing up with other kids can be a pain." Eugene said, putting an arm around Rapunzel's shoulder. "Especially a houseful of them." Rapunzel nodded and rested her head on Eugene's chest.

"When we have a family, I want a houseful of kids too." Rapunzel said softly, and Eugene's usually cynical look took on a gentler tone as well.

"Sure, Blondie. As many as you want. We'll even have a castleful." Eugene whispered, holding Rapunzel closer.

Rapunzel nodded and enjoyed the warmth of her husband. For now, she let herself forget about the stress and the emotions running high that magic always seemed to stir up. Taking advantage of the quiet, Rapunzel let her eyes close and she slept in Eugene's arms.

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><p>Thinking about getting a beta reader for these. Anyway, thank you for reading and stay tuned for the next one.<p> 


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